A Texas sun shined on a crowd of 2,000 gathered at University of Houston’s Lynn Eusan Park on Thursday, but it was presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry that brought the heat, issuing a spate of criticisms attacking the Bush administration.

“We can give him some credit,” Kerry said. “He’s actually proving himself to be good at recycling – recycling the deficit, bad economic policies and bad foreign policies.”

With a poster bearing a photo of the Earth and the phrase, “Strong environment = strong economy,” as a backdrop for his Earth Day address, Kerry evoked John F. Kennedy’s pledge to Americans to reach the moon in a promise to get 20 percent of the nation’s power supply on alternative and renewable energy sources by 2020.

Rebuffing the argument that environmental controls spoil the economy, Kerry said investing in new technologies will create the jobs the economy needs.

A one-two punch at Bush’s education policies questioned the No Child Left Behind Act and struck a chord with the students in attendance at the rally, saying he would restore Pell Grant funding, as Bush promised to do but never did.

All this, Kerry said, plus a revised tax cut that benefits the middle class over the upper class. His plan to pay for all this?

“I’m going to restore fairness in the tax codes and keep companies from exploiting the loopholes. It’s time to plug the holes and roll back Bush’s unwise, unaffordable tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans,” Kerry said, prompting cheers.

Citing Bob Woodward’s book, “Plan of Attack,” which detailed Bush’s push to go to war with Iraq, Kerry said the president may have secretly formed a pact with Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia to increase oil production in time for the November elections.

“I don’t know if it was a deal. I don’t know if it was a secret pledge. I don’t know if it was a friendly conversation among friends,” Kerry said. “Whatever it was, Americans are getting a bad deal today.”

“America needs a president that’s going to fight for America. I pledge to fight to lower prices – not in secret meetings or behind closed doors,” Kerry said. “America doesn’t need a president who allows companies to write legislation and who gives tax breaks to polluters in exchange for campaign contributions.”

Kerry packed strong criticism in his second visit to Houston in Bush’s home state, which overwhelmingly supported Bush in 2000 with nearly 60 percent of the vote, compared to Gore’s 38 percent.

“They say this is Bush country. I’m here to tell you this could be Kerry country if you make it so,” Kerry said.

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